


Of All the Stars, the Fairest

by inklo



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Falling In Love, Fluff, Love Poems, and confessions, and morning kisses, guys they're so soft, sappho's poems, there's stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 07:09:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15189503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inklo/pseuds/inklo
Summary: It's a starry night in Midvale.Maggie finds herself speaking in poems.Alex thinks about forever.They make sweet memories in the soft moonlight.





	Of All the Stars, the Fairest

**Author's Note:**

> poems are sappho's 
> 
> fragment 96  
> fragment 104 
> 
> there's a million translations but i picked the ones that fit the story best x

Alex wouldn’t have done it if not for the gleam in Maggie’s eyes. 

 

It is their last day in Midvale. The two of them are watching the house while Eliza’s away. They are already in for the night, Alex reading a new article on alien medicine and Maggie working her way through a mound of work emails she’d received in her absence. Alex is turning the page when Maggie gently pulls the journal from her hands and suggests they go on a little adventure. It’s late, and Alex is tired, and she wonders what kind of adventure Maggie is thinking of in her sleepy hometown, but her girlfriend is nothing if not persuasive. 

 

How could Alex say no with Maggie leaning over her in bed, the curling end of her ponytail tickling Alex’s nose, her excited girl smiling down at her? How can she refuse the look in Maggie’s eyes, reflecting every bit of the soft moonlight sliding through the slats of the open blinds, the soft “please” she whispers with a kiss against her neck? She doesn’t stand a chance. 

 

So this is how Alex finds herself tugging on a faded tee and a pair of old shorts as Maggie tosses a few things in a bag. She tries not to laugh at Maggie’s late-night getup, a Hawaiian shirt she’d thrown on over a pair of grey NCPD joggers and a baseball cap to finish it off. She grabs a quilt from the bed and her keys from the counter before Maggie grabs a box from the fridge and pulls her out the door. 

 

Some time later, they’re laughing together at a joke not nearly funny enough to elicit such a reaction, but they’re both a bit high from the adrenaline of being out this late at night. Or this early in the morning, it would seem. 

 

They make their way towards the beach, Alex following Maggie’s lead, until they stop at one point for Maggie to open the hatch of a gate. 

 

“Breaking into private property, Sawyer?” Alex asks, oddly cool for someone suggesting that a detective is breaking the law.

 

Maggie lets out a laugh at Alex’s question, pointing at a "Public Beach" sign. 

 

“Don’t think I’m up for that kind of adventure, Danvers. At least not tonight.” 

 

Maggie waits for a usual witty retort, but Alex is oddly quiet. 

 

She tilts her head and looks over at the woman beside her. 

 

Alex is standing with her weight on her right side, as she holds the quilt tucked beneath her left arm against her hip. She looks admittedly a little ridiculous with her too big t-shirt, one Maggie knows to be a relic from one of her father’s surfing competitions, falling past the end of the khaki shorts she threw on per Maggie’s rushed request. Her hair is windswept from the walk and frizzing just a bit at the edges in the nighttime humidity. Her freckles are prominent, scattered about her nose in a proud way after being revealed slowly over weeks in the summer sun. There are a dozen other details Maggie notices about her girlfriend in this moment, and Alex is none the wiser. 

 

Alex’s eyes are to the sky, moving from star to star, tracing the corners and curves of every constellation she can find. 

 

A few seconds later, Alex seems to notice her own trance and drops her head, before looking back over at Maggie. She grins when she notices her already staring. With anyone else, she may have been embarrassed, but Maggie knows all about her fascination with the stars. 

 

“Well, come on, Sawyer. We don’t have all night,” she says, moving forward quickly along the pathway, leaving Maggie grinning behind her. 

 

She jogs to catch up to Alex’s side, falling into step beside her, plucking the quilt from beneath her arm and sliding an arm around her waist. 

 

The two of them stroll down the beach, teasing and giggling as they kick up sand and steal kisses under the stars. 

 

* * *

 

Some time later, Alex is glad they decided to come out for the night, slipping down to the small cove Maggie had found on one of her early morning runs and sharing the last piece of tiramisu. They are laying on her quilt, spread out across the sand. 

 

As they stay there, both looking up at the stars, eyes focused on their sliver of the night sky, the giddiness that had permeated nearly every other part of the night fades out. 

 

Maggie turns on her side, propping her head on her hand as she leans slightly towards Alex. She turns her cap backwards so she can see better, eyes flitting across her girlfriend’s features as she stares at Alex with a soft smile. Alex’s gaze strays from the stars as she looks at Maggie, eyebrows raised in question. 

 

“Sawyer,” she notes, inquiry as to why she is staring and hovering over her implied.

 

“Danvers,” Maggie responds with a drawl, ignoring the silent question. 

 

Alex scoffs at her, rolling her eyes as she looks back to the sky. Moments pass before the silence breaks.

 

Quiet, quieter than the ocean’s leisured waves, than the wind whistling sweetly around them, Maggie whispers.

 

“Of all the stars, the fairest.”

 

It’s so soft, Maggie doesn’t think Alex heard it. Hopes not, considering she hadn’t meant to say it aloud. Yet, Alex looks over at her with a cute look, one of intrigue and confusion and that perpetual glint of adoration. 

 

“What are you talking about?” she asks, grinning at the woman beside her, finding nothing but tenderness in Maggie’s soft gaze. 

 

Maggie curses internally at her slip. Debates brushing it off as nothing before falling into the way the crash of the waves and the gleam of Alex’s eyes will her to be honest. 

 

Alex just looks at her, confused, wondering what Maggie meant, why she sounded so breathless when she said it. She looks at her girlfriend with furrowed, questioning eyes. 

 

Maggie can’t help but smile wider at Alex’s adorable facial expression, reveling in it before explaining. 

 

“It’s a bit of a poem, Danvers.”

 

Surprised, Alex raises an eyebrow and deadpans, “So, we’re reciting poetry, now?”

 

Maggie chuckles at her girlfriend’s apparent disdain for the concept. 

 

“For starters, it’s just one line.”

 

Alex hums.

 

“Besides, I couldn’t help it. It’s kind of perfect right now.” 

 

Alex’s interest is piqued at that. She turns to curl into Maggie’s side, draping an arm across her stomach and kissing her shoulder. “Tell me more.”

 

“Oh, so now you wanna hear it.”

 

“Come on, Sawyer. Give me the rest,” Alex urges her, peppering soft kisses across her neck between words. “Woo me,” she teases. 

 

“I think we both know I already have,” Maggie quips, before kissing away Alex’s resulting pout. 

 

“Alright, alright,” she gives in. Maggie settles into the moment, relaxing into the feeling of Alex’s hand smooths lazily over her stomach before finally reciting the short verse. 

 

“Of all the stars that shine

Thou art, I think, an evening star, 

of all stars the fairest.”

 

It’s silent for a moment, until Alex speaks. 

 

“So… I’m a star. A giant ball of self-luminous gas in the sky.”

 

Maggie groans, chuckling at Alex’s less than romantic interpretation. 

 

She turns her head to look at Alex’s very unamused face, “Babe, it’s not that literal. You know that’s not what it means.” 

 

“What _does_ it mean?” Alex prods, feigning ignorance so she can nuzzle further into Maggie’s body, trace soft patterns beneath the hem of her shirt, and listen to her girlfriend compare her to the stars with which she had always been so enamored. 

 

Alex watches her curiously, holding a steady gaze as Maggie finds her position first, and then her words.

 

“What do you see?” Maggie asks, motioning to the sky above them. 

 

Alex grins at the hoops Maggie is making her jump through for an answer to her simple question, but she plays along. She finds Maggie’s hand to interlock their fingers.

 

“I see the night sky. I see the constellations my dad used to show me. I guess I don’t really see these, but I can imagine the planets that aren’t visibly there, the ones Kara would go on and on about when we were younger. I see a lot, sure, but not nearly as much as I would like.”

 

Maggie takes that in, her thumb softly stroking Alex’s hand as she processes her answer. After a few beats, Alex nudges her shoulder, and asks quietly, “What do you see?”

 

Maggie lets out a sigh. She knows she is the one who originally posed the question, but she now finds herself overwhelmed at the prospect of providing its answer. She can feel Alex’s gaze heavy on her silhouette as she finally responds. 

 

“I see a whole lot more than I could ever try to understand. I see stars and moons and planets that probably hold more than we realize. Like you, I see a universe that’s big and beautiful and…daunting.”

 

Alex watches Maggie shake her head, almost imperceptibly as she chooses her next words. 

 

“I see it all and I think of how big the world is and how little we are. You know, I’ve always wanted to make this world a better place but - well, what’s a local cop got against a universe like that, right.” 

 

She lets it out with a wry laugh. 

 

Alex brings her hand up to kiss her palm. Maggie turns her head to find Alex’s eyes looking intensely back at her. They are strong and earnest, and Maggie wonders what Alex must be thinking to form a gaze so loving. She shifts on the quilt to face her. 

 

“It means I’ve always felt a little lost, some times more than others. And I’ve never known how to shuffle through the stars and find my place.”

 

Maggie’s hand cups Alex’s cheek, her fingers sliding softly across smooth skin as she blinks back her own tears. Alex’s gaze has since softened. Now, Maggie finds it so terrifically tender, she can’t control the way her secrets spill into the space between them. 

 

“But, Alex, I look at you, and it all makes sense. I don’t feel lost with you, I feel stable, steady, sure.”

 

She grounds herself then in the love of Alex’s gaze, and finally answers her question.

 

“Out of all the stars, Alex, you are the fairest. And I’ll always find you, in any galaxy, in any universe.”

 

Maggie brushes back the short strands of hair the night breeze had blown in front of Alex’s eyes and confesses the simplest truth. 

 

“It means that I love you, Alex Danvers. It means I always will.” 

 

She is so close that Alex feels the words against her skin, her lips tingling where Maggie’s had grazed so lightly as she breathed her soft declaration. She can appreciate poetry and all it’s veiled notions and hidden meanings, but hearing Maggie talk about her like this, with such reverent, vulnerable, unabashed love, stirs something in Alex that no poem ever could. 

 

Alex wants to tell Maggie how glad she is to hear these things. She can’t wait to admit how the sweetness of this love makes her heart swell. But she also wants Maggie to know how extraordinary she is, how if anyone is meant to defy the odds and disturb the universe, it’s her. She vows to tell her all of it when the sun rises, but first decides to show her. She wants Maggie to know that as much she is Alex’s, Alex is hers. And whether or not it’s written in the stars, Alex knows she’ll still choose Maggie, every time, until the end of time. 

 

In the time between night and morning, in the space between a sand-dusted quilt and her earnest-eyed girl, Alex realizes just how much she loves Maggie Sawyer, too.

 

The weight of Maggie’s own confession still sits so full in Alex’s heart that all she can manage back is a breathless confession. 

 

“And I love you, Maggie Sawyer. Forever.” 

 

Maggie smiles wide, and Alex wastes no time pulling her girlfriend impossibly close. She adores the way Maggies eyes sparkle in response, so she kisses her and says it again. 

 

“I love you,” Alex whispers between kisses against Maggie’s lips, feeling them form into a smile. “Forever.”

 

Maggie ducks her head at how silly she feels, unable to control her reaction to hearing Alex’s words. 

 

Alex can’t stop, decides she never wants to. She whispers it into Maggie’s skin a hundred times that night, as they kiss beneath the stars, as they amble back home and fall into bed, as they love each other until the sun rises. An “I love you” preluding every touch, a “forever” echoing every kiss.

 

* * *

 

When Maggie wakes up the next morning, it’s because of the sunlight shining through the sheer curtain of the window. She must’ve gotten hot in the middle of the night because the covers are pushed halfway to the floor, and she’s facing the wall instead of Alex’s side of the bed. She’s not usually one for waking up late, so she feels a bit thrown off, but decides a very large coffee should het her back on track.

She turns to reach for Alex and ask if she wants some when her hand meets the cool softness of empty sheets. Maggie is frowning at her girlfriend’s absence and the diminishing possibility of morning cuddles when she sees a note on Alex’s bedside table. She leans over to pick up the paper, running a hand through her slightly tangled morning hair before reading.

 

_ “sometimes at sunset _

_ the rosyfingered moon _

_ surpasses all the stars. and her light _

_ stretches over salt sea _

_ equally and flowerdeep fields. _

_ and the beautiful dew is poured out _

_ and roses bloom”_

  
_\- Sappho_

Looked up that poem you shared w/me. You didn’t mention the poet was Sappho, and you definitely didn’t mention she was a huge lesbian.   
  
Anyways, if I’m a star, Maggie, you must be the moon. You surpass us all.

Went out to get you coffee. Be back soon.

Love,

Alex

 

Maggie can’t do much but hold the note to her chest and fall back on the bed. She stays there for a few moments smiling up at the ceiling, thinking of Alex and her adorably sweet gesture, and wondering how much further she can fall for this amazing woman. 

 

Eventually, she gets up to shower, hoping to be dressed before Alex gets home. As she’s fastening the last button of her shirt, she hears Alex’s key in the front door and shuffles down the stairs. She finds her in the kitchen, sliding sunglasses up to rest in her hair and setting two coffees and a bag of pastries down on the counter. 

 

Maggie leans against a doorframe and watches Alex move around the kitchen, listens to her hum a tune softly under her breath while she arranges their muffins on a plate.

 

“Hey you,” she says, breaking Alex out of her bubble. She must surprise her because Alex jumps a bit before spinning around to see Maggie standing in the doorway. Maggie smirks. 

 

“Didn’t see you there,” Alex admits with a laugh, eyeing Maggie as she makes her way around the counter. 

 

“Well, you’re pretty easy to spook for a secret agent,” Maggie teases her, moving closer into her space. 

 

“Ah, you’re the only one who gets away with it,” Alex responds with a shrug of her shoulders. 

 

Maggie hums at that, leaning in to capture Alex’s lips in a kiss. 

 

“Good morning,” Alex whispers when they pull apart. 

 

“Good morning to you, too,” Maggie says, unable to keep herself from smiling especially bright. 

 

Alex eyes her curiously, smiling herself at Maggie’s particular radiance this morning. She slides a banana chocolate chip muffin her way with a smirk, “Your favorite.”

 

Maggie breaks off a piece, muttering a thank you and popping it into her mouth, before staring back at Alex with a cute grin. She brings the slip of paper from behind her back and sets it on the countertop. 

 

“So you liked the poetry, huh?” 

 

Alex ducks her head, blushing slightly, shy under Maggie’s loving gaze. She’s not usually one for poems and metaphors; she’d much rather be blunt and tell someone exactly what they make her feel in her own way. But she couldn’t deny how beautiful the words had sounded falling from Maggie’s lips the night before. Sometimes it’s okay to let the love-ridden musings of a lady-loving poetess speak for you. 

 

She grins at her smirking girlfriend, rolling her eyes and biting her lip before admitting. “Maybe.” 

 

She doesn’t confess to how she sat on the balcony and pored over dozens of poems for an hour that morning, how she’d read fragments of prose and salvaged meters about earth-shattering love and thought of Maggie with every one. 

 

Maggie just gives her a knowing look and pulls Alex closer, wrapping her arms fully around her waist. “It was a nice note, Danvers. Besides the fact that you weren't there beside me, it was a lovely way to wake up.” 

 

Alex smiles back at her, “So, you liked it?” 

 

“I liked it,” Maggie says before kissing her softly. “And I love you.” 

 

Alex melts into Maggie, letting her girlfriend ease her against the counter to kiss her slowly. One hand rests on the counter and the other comes up to cradle Maggie’s neck and run easily through her hair. The soft touch of Maggie’s lips takes Alex back to their time on the beach the night before. She smiles into Maggie’s kisses at the memory before remembering what she’d sworn to say in the morning. 

 

She pulls back, looking Maggie in the eyes. 

 

“Hey,” she starts, only a little breathless. 

 

“Hey,” Maggie says back, pressing one more quick peck to Alex’s lips, able to tell she has something important to say. 

 

“Remember our conversation in the cove last night?” Alex asks her.

 

“It would be pretty hard to forget.” 

 

Alex chuckles lightly, “Yeah, it would. At one point, you were talking about the stars and the universe and how it sometimes made you feel small.”

 

Maggie nods, wondering where Alex is going with this.

 

“And sometimes it can feel pointless, or hopeless, doing what we do, I know. But Maggie, you-”

 

Alex pushes off the counter and takes her girlfriend’s hand in hers. She finds Maggie’s gaze and it’s so full of love, she doesn’t hesitate to say her next words. 

 

“You’re the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever met. You’re smart and you’re tough and you’re beautiful. You’ve overcome things I can only attempt to imagine. Maggie, if anyone could change the world, if anyone stands a chance making a mark in this formidable universe…it’s you.” 

 

A beat passes, and for a moment, the only sound in the bright kitchen is the chirping of a hummingbirds on the windowsill and the wind whistling through chimes. It’s so different, saying these things in the light of day, without the cover of night and encouraging stars to will these truths out of them. 

 

Maggie looks back at Alex, eyes shining from tears she tries not to shed, and her girlfriend pulls her in to hold her tight. 

 

When she feels a tear fall against her skin, Alex eases back to wipe another from Maggie’s cheek. There are a few tears on her face, but also a smile. 

 

The shorter woman lets out a laugh, “God, Danvers. I haven’t even had my coffee.” 

 

Alex chuckles in tandem as she tucks a lock of hair behind Maggie’s ear. 

 

“I’m sorry. It’s a lot, I know. I just, I wanted you to know.” 

 

Maggie nods, still holding Alex's hands in hers. “I love you for telling me.” 

 

From there, Alex kisses her girlfriend once more and slides a coffee her way. They eat breakfast and plan the ride home, sharing soft kisses and arguing playfully over who gets to drive. Soon enough, they’re packed up, passing their cove and making their way down the winding road overlooking the coast. 

 

 

As they pass through the town’s border, Alex glances over. Maggie has thrown her hair up in a bun, and small wisps fly around her face in the blowing wind. She’s got her arm resting on the base of the car’s open window as she looks out over the cliff’s edge on the lapping waves below. She’s smiling softly at the sight, dimples making a tentative appearance. Her skin is glowing and sunkissed from their days at the beach, and Alex thinks this is the most beautiful Maggie’s ever been. 

 

Only a moment later, Maggie looks back at her. The way Maggie gazes at her, with stars in her eyes brighter than any constellation Alex could ever find in the vast night sky of the California oceanside, it’s everything. Alex thinks one could write a thousand poems to capture the essence of the look in Maggie’s eyes, the love there. 

 

One look at Maggie and it feels like forever. One glance at her love and it feels like coming home. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! 
> 
> kudos/comments keep me writing and also just make me smile:)
> 
> @agentdvnvrs on twitter
> 
> [Alex's Note](https://www.flickr.com/photos/159360251@N05/42335677875/)


End file.
